Ink jet printers are each equipped with an ink container for supplying ink to the print head. A replaceable printer cartridge is widely used as the means for providing the new supply. Such printer cartridges may be in the form of a simple ink container or in a form that is unified with a printer head. In the present application, the term “printer cartridge” covers both types and therefore can include a replaceable cartridge, at least a part of which constitutes an ink container.
Disposable printer cartridges have a head portion and an ink containing portion capable of supplying ink to the head portion. The ink containing portion is usually made of a non-transparent material for the purpose of protecting the properties of the ink in the container thereof.
Today, a majority of the printer cartridges for ink jet printers sold are a one-way product, i.e. it has to be discarded after the depletion of the ink supply. This is highly undesirable on economic reasoning since such depleted printer cartridges, but for their ink depletion, are still functional and this includes especially, valuable components such as the nozzle plates through which ink is ejected.
In addition, environmental concerns also call for the “reuse” of printer cartridges.
Accordingly, it is desirable to provide an apparatus that is capable of refilling printer cartridges. With such objective, there is a widely used method whereby an ink supply container in the form of a simple injector mounts to a joint portion of the printer cartridge, and the ink container is caused to collapse thereby to inject ink into the printer cartridge to render the printer cartridge reusable.
One disadvantage of such a prior art refilling method is that the quality of ink required in the printer cartridge is uncertain since the ink container of the cartridge is not visible. This is especially so where refilling is to be as a precautionary exercise, ie; before full depletion. Moreover, where the ink being supplied to the printer cartridge is supplied at an excessive pressure or at an excessive rate its flow can divert. Therefore, a desired quantity of ink may not be properly delivered.
Manual refill kits for printer cartridges are available in the market. However, such manual refill kits come with too many parts and they require lengthy procedures to be followed by users in order to affect the refill process. If users are not familiar with the refilling procedure, it can result in ink leaking from the cartridge during the refilling process and thus causing an unnecessary mess to the users' equipment.
To overcome at least some of these difficulties or to provide an alternative to such ink refilling supplies and apparatus and such ink refilling method one or more of the following is desirable:    1. The quantity of the ink required for the ink refilling process is as close as possible to the quantity of the ink filled into the printer cartridge. While usage efficiency of the refilling ink can be achieved, it too enables the size of the consumable ink supply device to be reduced.    2. The method of refilling is simplified and thus users can affect the refill easily.    3. The refilled printer cartridge is still capable of providing high quality printing.